The National Cancer Institute estimates that there will be more than a million new cases and fewer than 2,000 deaths from nonmelanoma skin cancer in the U.S. in 2007.

Wayne State University's Ernest Abel, PhD, and colleagues studied coffee consumption and nonmelanoma skin cancer in more than 77,000 white postmenopausal women in the U.S.

The women participated in a long-term observational health study that began in the 1990s.

When the women joined the study, they shared lots of information about themselves, including how much coffee (decaf or caffeinated) and tea they drank and whether they had ever been diagnosed with nonmelanoma skin cancer.

Skin Cancer and Coffee

A total of 7,482 women reported ever having nonmelanoma skin cancer.

The researchers considered factors including participants' smoking, drinking, age, BMI (body mass index, which relates height to weight), and whether the women lived in the sunny South or further north when the study started.

After those adjustments, the researchers found that each daily cup of caffeinated coffee was associated with a 5% drop in the women's odds of reporting nonmelanoma skin cancer.

Women who drank six cups of caffeinated coffee per day were 30% less likely than other women to report nonmelanoma skin cancer.